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BEST WORKS OF SCULPTURE
For a list of the world's top 100
3-D artworks, by the best sculptors
in the history of art, see:
Greatest Sculptures Ever.
EVOLUTION OF SCULPTURE
For details of the origins and
development of the plastic arts
see: History of Sculpture.
SCULPTING MEDIA
For different types of carving,
and modelling, see:
Stone Sculpture
From igneous, sedimentary,
and metamorphic rocks.
Marble Sculpture
Pentelic, Carrara, Parian marbles.
Wood Carving
Chip carving, relief carving of
softwoods and hardwoods.
Bronze Sculpture
Lost-wax casting method,
sandcasting, centrifugal casting.
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During this period his main artistic output
was a series of medallions - notably Leda and the Swan, created
for the Gonfaloniere Gabbriello Cesarino; a medal featuring Heracles
and the Nemean Lion, in gold repousse work; and another in chased
gold featuring Atlas holding up the world - along with a range
of jewellery, as well as dies for private medals and papal coinage.
France
A fall-out with the Pope in the late 1530s
ultimately led to Cellini's move to France where he worked at the court
of Francis I at Fontainebleau and Paris. It was in France that he created
his famous saltcellar (Saliera, 1540-1543, Kunsthistorisches Museum,
Vienna) made from gold adorned with enamel, with an ebony base. As always,
however, his temperament, artistic skill and debauchery ensured him of
numerous enemies, whom he was (for once) unable to subdue by physical
means. As a result, after five years of successful goldsmithery, he left
Fontainebleau and retired to Florence.
Florence
In Florence Cellini continued as a goldsmith
but also took up large-scale sculpture in the round, becoming the rival
of sculptor Baccio Bandinelli (1493-1560). His masterpiece, made
for Cosimo I de' Medici and one of the greatest examples of Florentine
Mannerist sculpture, is the bronze statue Perseus with the head of
Medusa (1545-54, Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence). The casting of this
immortal statue reportedly caused Cellini the utmost trouble and anxiety,
while its final completion and display was hailed with rapturous acclaim
from all over Italy. Other notable but not memorable works included his
two bronze busts - Cosimo I (1545-8, Bargello, Florence) and Bindo
Altoviti (1550, Gardner Museum, Boston) - along with several marble
sculptures.
Decline
The unveiling of Perseus (1554)
marked the zenith of Cellini's career as an artist. Three years later
he was sentenced to four years in jail for illegal sexual practices, and
his output thereafter was limited to his autobiography and various books
on sculpture and the art of goldsmithery. He died unmarried in Florence
at the age of 70, though survived by numerous children, and was buried
with great honours.
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